Northeast Historical Archaeology Volume 10 Article 6 1981 Pentagoet: A First Look at Seventeenth Century Acadian Maine Alaric Faulkner Follow this and additional works at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Faulkner, Alaric (1981) "Pentagoet: A First Look at Seventeenth Century Acadian Maine," Northeast Historical Archaeology: Vol. 10 10, Article 6. https://doi.org/10.22191/neha/vol10/iss1/6 Available at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol10/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Northeast Historical Archaeology by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. 51 Franco-American heritage, an aspect of that Pentagoet heritage which has gone unexplored. A First Look At Pentagoet was a small but impressive forti­ fied French settlement reputed to have re­ Seventeenth Century placed a former Plymouth Colony trading post in operation at the mouth of the Penob­ Acadian Maine scot from 1629 through 1634 (Webster 1935: 218; Wheeler 1875:12). Of enormous political Alaric Faulkner and considerable economic importance, it was built in 1635 to mark the western limit of Historical Significance Acadian claims to the coast, and served as an Although the French have had legitimate entrepot for trade with the native Etchemin claims to the coast of Maine since Champlain groups, French settlers, and indeed the Eng­ and Dumont's atempted colonization of St. lish. It is included on the National Register Croix island in 1604, little attention has been with three later English and American mili­ paid to this fact historically or archaeologically tary sites in the Castine Historic District- all until comparatively recently (e.g. d'Entremont fortifications which controlled access to the 1981: 2:199-338, and Cotter 1978). Neverthe­ Penobscot River. But as a surviving early less the French were frequent, if temporary Acadian settlement and trading post, the occupants of the northeast coast of Maine Pentagoet site is unique and of outstanding from the first decades of the 17th century. importance. From 1635 until shortly after 1713, half the Fort Pentagoet was evidently built to serve coast of Maine, from the Penobscot river as the headquarters of Charles d'Aulnay, Sieur northeastward, was an integral part of French de Chamisay, who was co-lieutenant general Acadia (Figure 1). Acadian history and archa­ of Acadia with his arch rival, Charles de la eology, it follows, are integral parts of Maine's Tour. It was here that many episodes in the ACADIA 1670 0 100km Figure 1. Principal Acadian settlements, c. 1670, showing Pentagoet as the western most outpost of French settlement (after Rawlyk 1973:32). 52 lifeways during English occupation are mat­ ters of keen archaeological interest, as they bear on the nature of frontier conquests, and the practical reconciliation of political inter­ ests in regions as yet too sparsely populated to be defended effectively. In 1670, as a provision of the Treaty of Breda, Pentagoet was restored to the French. It is for this time, when numerous plans and descriptions of the fort recorded the transac­ tion, that we have our clearest picture of the physical layout of Pentagoet and the form and function of its structures (Figures 3 and 4; Wheeler 1875:209-219; Hill 1750). Hubert d'Andigny, Chevalier de Grandfontaine and Figure 2. Schematic plan of amateur excavations of new governor of Acadia, received Pentagoet Pentagoet conducted in 1878 and 1892, recorded by personally, and made it his new headquarters historian George A. Wheeler (1893:120). (Arsenault 1978:35). Acadian expansion be­ gan in earnest. In 1674, however, the stone early drama of Massachusetts-La Tour-d'Aul­ fort was looted, burned, and levelled by the nay relations were acted out, including trade Flemish Captain Aernouts a consequence of partnership~, espionage, raiding, piracy, and the war between the Low Countries and the reconciliation (Arsenault 1978:23-29; Wheeler French and English (Wheeler 1875:25). 1875:15). It was this network of strained re­ The Dutch looting and subsequent scavang­ lationships which formed the basis for later ing of the debris by the English apparently New England-Acadian conflict towards the put a permanent end to the great stone struc­ end of the 17th century. But what passed for ture of the d'Aulnay-Grandfontaine period. a day-to-day existence at the settlement, apart Thereafter the region was occuupied by Baron from these dramatic political episodes, re­ St. Castin, one of Grandfontaine's soldiers who mains to be discovered archaeologically. married into the Penobscot tribe and i In 1654 Major Sedgwick, under orders from be~ame I an important chief (Wheeler 1875:17-24, Cromwell, took most of the major Acadian 26-29). He and his sons in later years played settlements by force (Arsenault 1978:32-33). important roles in rallying the Indians against One of these was Pentagoet, and from then the English at Pemaquid and in defense of until 1667 Acadia was controlled by two Eng­ the New England assaults on Port Royal lishmen of Boston, and Charles de Ia Tour (Arsenault 1978:66-79). It is clear from the former French lieuteant general who had cartography (e.g. Southhack's Coast Pilot of now won favor with the English. The cultural 1690 in the London Public Records office affinities of Pentagoet's inhabitants and their and Carte du Havre de Paintagouet c.l688 at University of Maine at Orono) that Castin's settlements were moved to various other loca­ tions in the vicinity, and eventually were lo­ cated farther up the Penobscot River near Old Town. Therefore the major remains pre­ served at Pentagoet belong to the d'Aulnay­ Grandfrontaine era in which the French made substantial investments in Acadian settlement Figure 3. Plan du fort de Pentagouet, 10 twvbr 1670, It from an original in the Archive; Nationales, Minis­ and defense. is this component which offers tere des Colonies, Paris. (No key is known for the greatest archaeological potential. this plan.) 53 Archaeological Background The coastal lot in Castine Maine on which the SI11all Catholic church now stands has long been reputed to be the site of the "Old French Fort" (Figure 5). But because the site is barely 52 meters square and has been the victim of several episodes of 19th and early 20th century construction, amateur excava­ tion and landscaping, its potential for yielding DESCRIPTION OF FORT useful archaelogical information was in doubt. PENTAGOET.• A "The ]liU'IUie"- 11 plncc Wheeler ( 1893) and Noyes ( 1907) mention c~h!aa·ed fu1' 1nllltnry }HH'}lo~e!-1- HOIIIU twcnty-Uvo !JI1CB8 Hf)lll\l'C. five excavations between 1863 and 1907 for IJ 'l'he 1111\guzlno, whleh Is 1\hont thirty pnces lo11g nnrl 1\f. which the only significant record is a schema­ teou wltlc. (} 'l'hu glll\l'tl how~c, which Is tic sketch map (Figure 2). The notorious alJtHit tlftccn pace~ long n.ntl ton w\llc. Warren King Moorehead (1922:166) also at­ lJ A hnllcllng upon \.he other Hiclu of the guur:l house, ot tiiH tempted to work at the site in 1915, excavating s:uuc Mlz;t~, npon which t.ltcrt~ Is n. ~~~u~ll clmprl :uul a hclfl"y, nn<l "so far as we could operate without damage whwh nlllkCK a roof uvea· tho en· trancn Of the :..(ILtC. to the walls or property." This probably meant r' A rlwclllng for the officers, Momc llftccn paces long und ton that he was banned from the lawn area, and wl<lo. restricted to the bluff above the shore, r; Aunt.hcr hullrllng of the !-IIUno Hize rnr tho workmen nn<l where he was evidently attracted to a sol<llcrs. II '1'11" cntrntwe to tho fort. large shell heap associated with the fort. ,J •r1w nntrl\ncc to n. smn.ll re. rlonht whleh Is before the !Ciltc. In any event, the records and artifacts of these K 'l'lm gl\te or the out.erworks. /L 'l1 wo )Jh\t.fornu~, upon each excavations, if there were any, apparently do of which there nrc two guns whldt carry elght-pnuntl hnlls. not survive. Finally, oral tradition holds that M Another plutform with tho frttisns\pnltstu1es JOtet horlznntal­ the lot was levelled with a bulldozer in the ly.\ntn t 1C lfi"OIIII<l)l\tHl ClllUriL8· urJ; nf tmf, where there nrc late 1940s at the behest of the parish priest. three pl.,ccs, two t!ll(ht-pouurhn·s nnd one t.luee-ponmler. Fortunately, however, none of these poten­ N ·· Snuill immpots nt the ro· cntcl"lng ~tnd side angles of the tially disastrous events has done extensive t' xtcrlor works. o 'rwo 11 lookonts" rn.lse(l on damage to the site. thc two t\nglll8 of the bl\stlons. I' 'L,hc ::~tops to 1\sccntl Uw \Vhen storm damage along this coastline l'UIIIJ1f\l't. li '1'11" plllisn!les of tho ex­ was examined in the spring of 1980 as part tcl·ior worl<s. II A ha lwhouse nnd shed he­ of a student project, an impressive section of fore t.hc gLLte. s A deep dmnnel ( ot n urook) slate masonry was identified, protruding from to pt·e•tlrve. t.he wnter In the wnrm sunson. the 4 meter high coastal bluff. A six weeks test 'l' A eovc for small bonis [or u frnsh-wntot· creek b•u·o nt low excavation in the summer of 1981 was under­ tide].